The Stalker

Shannon and Myrtle had begun a home schooling routine and by February they had settled into a comfortable pattern. School started at 9 AM and finished at 1PM This left plenty of time for Shannon to visit the library or go on field trips that led them far away from the small town of Beeman.

Shannon would never have agreed to being home schooled, but the students at school were having too much fun at her expense. The notes, pranks and jokes about her and her family had become too much to bear. The final straw was a macabre website that some students had created which featured cartoon characters of Shannon's parents being blown to bits.

Currently, the town was abuzz about the large upcoming auction that would be held in the Leesford auction barn on Valentine's Day. Shannon was mildly aware of the auction since many of her family's business items were to be auctioned off. The sale also included the Moore estate, which was causing quite a bit of interest in the town.

The Moore family had already moved to Greenville by February and Shannon had been left out of the loop about Dan's condition. Calls to the hospital had been met with roadblocks where nurses refused to discuss Dan's condition. Shannon wasn't even sure he was still in the hospital. She had scanned the newspapers looking for a report that he had been discharged but there was never any mention of a Moore in the Greenville Tribune.

One particularly uneventful Friday Shannon received a phone call in the early evening. A woman's voice on the other end started out talking slowly, in almost a whisper. "Shannon, be aware of those around you. You are in danger. Don't trust anyone." Shannon stared at the phone like it was a foreign object and she held it away from her head momentarily before returning it to her ear. "What do you want? Why are you bothering me?" Shannon said angrily. "I only want to help. Remember, don't trust anyone," and the woman hung up. How weird, Shannon thought. There's a nut ball around every corner these days.

"Who was that?" Myrtle said to Shannon as she entered the living room. "Oh, no one, wrong number I guess," she replied. Myrtle stared at her, wondering if she was telling the truth. Shannon had become very secretive lately but she couldn't blame her. It had to be terribly difficult with her parents gone now. Myrtle had decided it was probably best to let her have time to herself and not interfere.

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